On our second day of the park tour we left the San Miguel de Bala community and headed up river to Madidi National Park. After about 30 minutes of motoring we stopped at a small hut along the bank of the river that serves as the park ranger station. We paid our entry fee (125 Bs, $18) and continued to the point where the Rio Tuiche branches off from the Rio Beni. Despite the recent flooding there were many shallow areas along the way and it was entertaining to watch our guide fight his way around the rocky spots.

White-Lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari)

Eventually we pulled up along a rather nondescript section of the river bank and unloaded our bags. Our guide told us that he could smell chanchos (wild pigs) and that we might get to see them. Sure enough, after we walked the half-mile to the ecolodge we came upon a group of a couple of dozen milling around the camp – talk about stinky!

We spent a total of two nights at the ecolodge in the park. The accommodations were a little less sophisticated than what we had in the community but let’s face it – we were in the middle of the jungle. The sleeping area consisted of a building divided into three rooms and the bathroom was a separate hut with running water.

The main activity at the ecolodge was going on hikes through the surrounding jungle. Over the two days we completed 5 or 6 hikes with our guide who had an uncanny ability to spot, smell and hear animals. On our first walk through the woods we darted off the path after he heard the high-pitched whistling sound of a saddle-backed tamarin. We eventually caught up to the small primate but he (or she?) was still really difficult to see high in the canopy.

Poison frog

Even though the monkeys and colorful birds are the most popular sights among tourists I found the smaller wildlife equally interesting. Everywhere you look there are strange types of insects, lizards, plants and fungi on just about every surface. Our guide pointed out a nest of bullet ants which are inch-long insects that get their name from the pain associated with their bite. One of the teenagers at the community mentioned that he had been bit by one and spent the subsequent hours weeping in agonizing pain from the bite. The Wikipedia article on the subject states “waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.” Note to self: avoid bullet ants.

Leaf-cutter ant superhighway

The famous leaf-cutter ants were good fun to watch. Spotting them is easy: you just look for the foot-wide river of leaves floating along the ground. The pieces they carry dwarf the ants themselves. Did you know that leaf-cutter ants are farmers? They take the leaves back to their nests where they decompose and serve as fertilizer for a fungus that the ants in turn consume.

We found plenty of feathered friends in the jungle. The toucans were a favorite and we came across the channel-billed variety on a couple of different occasions. There were also various birds of prey, woodpeckers, water birds, etc. Check out the thumbnail pictures below for more birds.

Male howler monkey

Monkey-wise the jungle treated us well. It took about five walks and lots of effort but eventually we found some howler monkeys. Hearing them is simple since their calls carry for miles through the jungle but getting close enough to see them through the dense foliage is another matter. On our last day, as if out of spite, a large group of them came straight to the ecolodge and hung out in the canopy eating leaves for a couple of hours. The males are strikingly large compared to the females.

So that wraps up our visit to Madidi National Park. We returned to Rurre in the boat on our forth day and worked on booking the next adventure. Heading the other direction from Rurre it is possible to visit Bolivia’s Pampas or grasslands. It is an area not too different from the Florida Everglades that is chock full of birds, caiman, and monkeys. More on that in the next post.

Madidi National Park – Part 2

Bullet ants

Tayra (Eira barbara) tracks. This critter sort of looks like an otter.

Visiting Madidi National Park is a multi-day process once one makes it to Rurrenabaque. Wandering the streets of Rurre we passed dozens and dozens of agencies offering tours of the park. We had read online that it was best to avoid the cheapest options in order to get a responsible company that treats both the park and the animals ethically. We also heard recommendations for a number of community-run park tours: Chalalán, San Miguel de Bala and one other.

In the end we selected San Miguel de Bala. While the Chalalán eco-lodge is the best known, it is a long five-hour boat ride from Rurre and was also quite pricey at over $400 per person for a four-day inclusive tour. San Miguel de Bala’s pricing was lower ($300 per person, 4-day inclusive) and their jungle lodge is only about 2.5 hours by boat from Rurre. The specific tour that we booked allowed us to stay in their village for the first night (about an hour upriver from Rurre) and then

the second and third nights in their jungle lodge off the Tuiche River inside of Madidi National Park.

We departed from Rurre at about 8:30 in the morning on Day 1 and made the quick trip up to San Miguel de Bala. The lodge was actually a collection of buildings on stilts. There was a kitchen/dining building and a communal gathering building that were quite close to the banks of the river. The guest cabins, which each have their own bathroom, are further up the mountainside.

Typical house in San Miguel de Bala

After we settled in to our nicely appointed bungalow, we headed off with our guide Simon to see his hometown – the village of San Miguel de Bala. The village is home to about 30 familes of Tacana Indians and is a short walk down the river from the eco-lodge. Simon showed us his childhood home, the homes of some of his siblings as well as the village’s church and school. At one point we stopped to squeeze some sugar cane juice which we mixed with fresh lime – exceptionally tasty!

Squeezing sugarcane

At the end of the village tour, one of the community’s dugout canoes picked us up at the village and took us to the eco-lodge for lunch. The tourist facilities are quite large at San Miguel – I think they can host upwards of 40 or 50 guests but that day Amy and I were the only ones. Following proper Latin American procedure, we climbed in the hammocks for a short siesta after lunch.

Siesta time!

The afternoon tour was to a rock canyon that is about 20 minutes down the river. The canyon was only about 2-3 feet wide and was filled with bats. Between the bats, the worms and the huge spiders it was definitely pretty high on my list of creepy-crawly places! We also got to see some nice birds in the boat along the way. All in all, a good first day on the tour!

King Vulture

Madidi National Park – Part 1

The booming metropolis of Rurrenabaque

Setting out on the 90-minute boat ride from Rurre to San Miguel de Bala